The Ellis Campout

Cohen taught us how to play color tag.  It might have gotten a little competitive among the adults!

Sparklers to finish off the evening before we tucked some boys in the tents.  Riley immediately came inside with me.  Cohen, and Justin had to come in at 2:00 a.m. due to the rain…only cell of rain in the state of Illinois and just happened to be over their tents!  Brody, and Kurt slept the whole night through.  The boys napped most of the way home the next day after so much excitement with their cousins!!  Thanks for letting us come and play!!

TEN!

Pre-School

Riley started 4 year old Pre-School today.  He was up before the sun and ready to go downstairs.  Kurt told him it was still time to sleep.  He refused to go back to his bed or crawl in ours, so he curled up in the cozy chair in our room and fell back to sleep until he fell out of the chair!  Oops...I did get to sit and rock him for about twenty minutes after he fell.  Didn't mind that extra snuggle time one bit!

(I sort of cringed when he picked out his socks, but he at least he didn't pull them up to his knees like he usually does!)

It was an easy drop off today for both boys.  Brody wanted to walk Riley to his room so we did that, and then Riley wanted to walk Brody back to his room.  I was fearful Riley was going to begin his typical cling-on routine as we walked back to his class.  However, Eli was there when we walked in and so all was well in his world.  

Brody thought day one of Kindergarten was pretty great.  His favorite part was playing outside TWICE and as K student, he now gets to cross the bridge in the playground!!

Kindergarten

The Night Before Kindergarten...

Tomorrow is the day...the day we send our Brody to Kindergarten.  We have double checked the backpack, partially packed a lunch and clothes are laid out.  We read the Night Before Kindergarten and B laughed because he didn't  know why a mama and daddy would cry when sending 'their kid' to school?!  And there I sat crying as I finished the book.  Their room was just dark enough that he had no idea...

Brody is ready.  He really is.  I will probably be the mom wearing sunglasses into school so no one knows how much Kindergarten has rocked my world.

The thing is, I think that the way I feel tonight will be repeated many times in the future as more and more milestones are reached...

Just the other day they were two and snacking off the same stool at Grammy and Grampy's.  Tomorrow, they will dining at school....

Showering Emily with Baby Love!

Emily and Brett will soon welcome their first child into the world.  To help them prepare for parenthood, we were able to shower them with baby love.  I believe Emily’s baby will be Grandma’s 13th great-grandchild.  Boys still outnumber girls in her great-grandchild count.  Will Emily’s baby add to the number of boys or girls?  Time will tell…

While we were busy at the shower, these boys, plus Cohen, were busy in the dirt pile.  I’m not sure I had ever seen such dirty kids…pictures really do not depict just how dirty they were.  There was a ring around Katy’s bath tub after we pulled them out!  But, boy did they have fun and sleep well that night.

Lake Of The Ozarks 2014

In early July, we escaped to Lake Of The Ozarks, Missouri for a few days of fun in the sun.  We met up with Allison and Tracy’s families for our biennial gathering.  We were able to celebrate Jess and Riley’s birthdays…only one day apart!

Gabby painted lots of nails…and not just girls got the royal treatment!  Actually, Brody still has black toe nail polish on my toe.

We took on a few go-cart tracks.

 

And enjoyed lots of baby snuggles with Caleb

We now must start planning for 2016…